Scandinavian countries still have the smallest gender gaps, according to the World Economic Forum’s annual gender survey, but this year they’re joined at the top of the list by a few nations you may not expect.

While other parts of the world were witnessing the growth of feminist movements, many South American countries were fighting dictatorships. For this reason, and thanks to the governments’ strong ties with the Catholic Church, many women are still denied the right to an abortion in Latin America.

There are now many thousands of clandestine operatives, nearly all of them armed and equipped with a license to kidnap, torture and kill, working overseas or domestically with little or no oversight and virtually no transparency.

Contemporary Nicaraguan politics have always been mired in conflict, be it in response to natural disasters, U.S.-sponsored terrorism, or depressing and dire poverty. And now President Daniel Ortega is using a “contested interpretation” of the country’s constitution to try to stay in power, incensing his opposition.

The U.S. has deployed an additional 4,000 troops to Haiti as aftershocks rocked the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Wednesday. The American troop count will reach 16,000 by the weekend as relief efforts hit full stride in the earthquake-ravaged country.

Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, in Moscow shopping for military hardware, may have been fishing for a discount when he announced that Caracas would join Russia and Nicaragua in recognizing the independence of the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The U.S., of course, is a strong supporter and ally of Georgia.

Little has been done to undo the coup d’etat that rocked Honduras over a month ago. Now, the Organization of American States, hoping for new elections and the return of President Manuel Zelaya, is sending a delegation to the country to try to negotiate an end to the crisis.

Ousted President Manuel Zelaya made an attempt to return home to Honduras, but he ended up doing a flyover on Sunday when authorities blocked his plane from landing at the Tegucigalpa airport. On the runway, Zelaya supporters clashed with military and police forces. At least one person was reported killed.

The Honduran coup leaders are showing their bravado. Said hombres have defied an international deadline to return democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya to power within 72 hours, doubling down on their swagger with a quip that “only a foreign invasion could reinstate him.”

In clashes between native groups armed with spears and development interests packing guns, Peru has seen at least 50 people die and hundreds go missing after President Alan Garcia initiated a campaign to open the rain forest to foreign investors.

(Editor’s note: Eugene Robinson is the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner for commentary.) It’s hard to argue with the results thus far from President Obama’s “no drama” approach to governing, but I think he should learn to chew a little scenery when the occasion demands.

At the request of House Republicans, Congress on Thursday held a closed-door session to debate the FISA warrantless eavesdropping bill. The last time a closed-door session occurred was in 1983, when lawmakers convened in secret to discuss clandestine U.S. support of Contra paramilitaries in Nicaragua.

Abortions were already illegal in Nicaragua, but today a law passed removing an exception in the previous law, which allowed a woman to obtain an abortion legally with the approval of three doctors who confirmed that the woman’s life was in danger. Many conservatives in government advocated 30-year prison terms for women who terminate their pregnancies and the doctors who perform the abortions, but the stricter prison terms did not pass. Currently the punishment is a six-year prison term. An estimated 32,000 illegal abortions are performed in Nicaragua each year.

Former revolutionary and U.S. foe Daniel Ortega is headed toward victory in Nicaragua’s presidential election. Like other leftist leaders who’ve found success in Latin America, Ortega campaigned against “savage capitalism” and poverty.